A FATHER who can only communicate with the outside world by blinking has been dealt a devastating financial blow.

Ian Hunt, who is paralysed from the waist down, has been told that he has little chance of a grant to adapt his home so that he can leave hospital.

And now he faces the prospect of having to use his pension pay-out - leaving him and his family with little financial support for the future.

His wife, Lesley, who has travelled to be at his side in a Southport Hospital every day for 16 months, has been warned she is unlikely to get any grant aid towards adapting their Drury home near Buckley - which could cost around #70,000 - and no benefits.

Ian, a BT transmission engineer, was paralysed after a motorcycle accident. He is due to be officially retired on ill health grounds on April 10 and will receive his pension and lump sum pay-out.

Ian, who needs a machine to help him breathe, will have to have a downstairs bathroom and bedroom and major changes at his home, along with new footpaths outside to ensure his special wheelchair can travel smoothly.

Lesley said: "We have not had the plans passed so we have not been out for an estimate but a very rough guide is around #70,000.

"I am still waiting for the plans to be passed for the adaptations and I'm hoping they will be passed and building work start in April.

"But I have to finance the building myself and it seems we don't qualify for grants because we have been meanstested and Ian is getting a lump sum. We don't qualify for grants or benefits.

"I think I'm going to have to go back to work. Ian's pension is not going to pay all the bills. It will cover the mortgage, the gas and electricity and things like that but it won't cover us to live.

"The grants people came out and I filled in the forms but I have been warned that the means test will probably go against me and we are unlikely to get a grant."

Lesley, 40, is also frustrated that she has yet to make the first step towards getting Ian home, by having him transferred from the special spinal unit at Southport to Deeside Community Hospital near Queensferry.

A team of 10 carers who will look after Ian 24 hours a day at the hospital have been appointed but Lesley is still waiting to hear when Ian, 41, can be moved to Deeside.

Generous well- wishers, including many Daily Post readers, have raised more than #65,000 to help the family.

Lesley has no access to it and has to apply to the fund trustees before they can use the money.

So far the fund has helped purchase a special computer so that Ian can communicate through blinking his eyes and a wheelchair which can also be guided by him blinking.

It has also purchased a people carrier - still awaiting delivery - which has to be fitted with air conditioning and very sophisticated suspension to accommodate someone with his kind of injuries.

"It's just been a nightmare," said mother-of-three Lesley, who faced a #650 repair bill when her car broke down on a Christmas Day visit to Ian. "If we had not worked all our lives it would have been better, presumably we would have had everything paid for."

As if the financial worries were not enough, Lesley is anxious about getting Ian to Deeside Hospital. "No one is saying at the moment that Ian can go home. He is going to Deeside where he will be monitored to see if it is feasible to allow him home. In hospital he will need two carers 24 hours a day. Ian has met the carers and they seem great, they have a good sense of humour and he gets on with them.

"Ian has a legal right to go home and we had hoped to get him home for Christmas. We have to wait for the police checks on the carers and I'm told all the delays are just making sure everything is OK for Ian.

"Within the week I should have had all the replies, about the grants and so on and a definite time table for the move to Deeside Hospital."